Obama Responds To The Planned Parenthood Shooting

Following the deadly shooting attack on a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, President Obama released a statement Saturday once again urging for stronger gun control laws. Obama condemned the Planned Parenthood Colorado Springs shooting, saying America "can't let it become normal." The president stopped short of addressing the possible political ideology behind the shooting attack, which killed three people, including Officer Garrett Swasey. Nine other people were wounded.

"We don't yet know what this particular gunman's so-called motive was for shooting twelve people, or for terrorizing an entire community," Obama said in the statement. "We know that law enforcement saved lives, as so many of them do every day, all across America. And we know that more Americans and their families had fear forced upon them."

Friday's shooting unfolded around noon Colorado time, when 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear allegedly opened fire in the Planned Parenthood Colorado Springs parking lot. Dear then allegedly entered the Planned Parenthood center. He held police in a five-hour-long standoff before he was taken into custody Friday evening.

"The last thing Americans should have to do, over the holidays or any day, is comfort the families of people killed by gun violence," Obama said. The president added that sending prayers and wishes to the Colorado Springs community was not enough. Instead, legislative action on gun control should be seriously considered — a platform the president has been pushing ever since he assumed office in 2009.

"If we truly care about this...then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them," Obama said. "Enough is enough."

Here's the transcript of Obama's full statement:

The last thing Americans should have to do, over the holidays or any day, is comfort the families of people killed by gun violence — people who woke up in the morning and bid their loved ones goodbye with no idea it would be for the last time.

And yet, two days after Thanksgiving, that's what we are forced to do again.

We don't yet know what this particular gunman's so-called motive was for shooting twelve people, or for terrorizing an entire community, when he opened fire with an assault weapon and took hostages at a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado. What we do know is that he killed a cop in the line of duty, along with two of the citizens that police officer was trying to protect. We know that law enforcement saved lives, as so many of them do every day, all across America. And we know that more Americans and their families had fear forced upon them.

This is not normal. We can't let it become normal. If we truly care about this — if we 're going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period. Enough is enough.

May God bless Officer Garrett Swasey and the Americans he tried to save — and may He grant the rest of us the courage to do the same thing.